Elon Musk's Neuralink is now letting people talk with their minds

Elon Musk's brain chip company, Neuralink, has announced that its second patient, who received a Brain Computer Interface (BCI), is now speaking with his mind.

For those who don't know, Neuralink is an American neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk in 2016. The company intends to develop implantable BCIs, which at first will be designed to solve some of the worst medical afflictions in humans, such as paralysis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

In a new video posted to the Neuralink YouTube channel, it's revealed that Kenneth Shock, an ALS patient, adopted Neuralink's N1 implant earlier this year, and this specific BCI is designed to convert brain activity into audible words, which are reproduced in Shock's voice before ALS impacted the sound of his voice.

Kenneth's ability to speak has been slowly taken away by ALS, and as his condition worsens, so will his ability to speak. The idea behind Neuralink's BCI is to give Kenneth the ability to speak with his mind, enabling him to live more independently.

The process involves decoding activity in the speech part of the brain, converting it to text, and having a computer speak it aloud. The whole process takes a few seconds, but Neuralink aims to achieve real-time translation so communication with patients is seamless.